Office of Financial Aid

Week of July 2nd & 9th

URGENT: Deadline To Accept 2012 Summer Loan- July 7th

If you still have loans offered to you for the summer term and intend to accept the funds, you must accept the loan amount(s) that you wish to receive by July 7th. If you do not wish to receive any of the funds you may decline the loan(s) using the myIIT portal.

Accept: If you wish to receive any portion of the loans still listed as offered you must accept the funds. Also, please be aware that you may be required to complete a Promissory Note and Loan Entrance Counseling with Direct Loans at www.studentloans.gov before the funds can be disbursed. Please refer to your 'Requirements' section on the myIIT portal.

Deadlines Summer Semester

Summer

The summer 2012 semester is a part of the 2011-2012 academic year. For this reason, if you wish to receive federal loans for the summer term you must have a complete 2011-2012 FAFSA on file. The Deadline to complete the 2011-2012 FAFSA is June 30, 2012.

Continuing Students Scholarships for 2012-2013

If you received a Chicago-Kent scholarship during the 2011-2012 academic year and you expect to receive one again in 2012-2013, please be aware that most merit based scholarships for continuing students will not be included in financial aid awards until late July. The Office of Admissions reviews grades and class ranks from the Spring term and determines which students are eligible for scholarship renewal. You will receive a revised award letter in August if your scholarship is renewed. For questions about your scholarship eligibility, please contact the Office of Admissions.

Summer Term Financial Aid Information

Students who plan to take Summer courses at IIT-DTC or at an approved visiting school may be eligible for either federal or private loans. In order to be eligible you must have completed a 2011-2012 FAFSA and have completed all required documents. We encourage students who are eligible for federal loans to accept these loans before considering private loans. Please note that anticipated loans and scholarships for the Fall 2012 semester cannot be used to pay Summer 2012 tuition.

At Least Half -Time Status
If you are enrolled at least half-time for summer, 3 credits, you are automatically offered federal loans. Once you accept your award(s) we will automatically process federal loans with your current federal loan promissory note, as long as we have received your 2011-2012 FAFSA information.

If you have used your entire $20,500 Stafford Loan eligibility during this past fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters, you will only be offered a Federal Graduate Plus Loan. If you have remaining Stafford Loan eligibility, this will be offered to you before a Federal Graduate Plus Loan is offered. Students will be offered a cost of attendance budget that equates to approximately 3 months of living expenses plus summer tuition charges.

Approximatley one week after you register at least half-tim you will be offered a summer financial aid award package. You receive an email notification that tells you that your award is available to be viewed on the myIIT portal.

Less Than Half-Time Status
If you are enrolled less than half time you are ineligible for federal loans. You will not be offered an award if you are registered less than half time. Some lenders offer private loans to students who will be enrolled for less than half-time status. In order to receive a private loan for the Summer semester you must apply for the loan directly with the lender of your choice and inform our office that it is your intention to use a private loan for summer. Private loans are not automatically renewed. To apply for a private loan online with the lender of your choice at please visit the following website for further information:

Federal Stafford and Federal Graduate Plus Loan Procedures
Once you have accepted your loan(s) via the myIIT portal, we will automatically process the loan using your current promissory note(s) from the previous Fall
and Spring semesters. Even though you may not be required to complete a new promissory note, the Department of Education may require completing a new Graduate Plus Loan credit check if your initial loan was approved more than 90 days ago. Also, if your initial Graduate Plus loan has an endorser/co-signer, you will have to complete a new loan promissory note and endorser application in order to receive the loan funds.

Summer Disbursement Schedule

Summer Loans will disburse according to the following schedule:

May 11th: Chicago-Kent students with completed files for the summer will receive their funds disbursed to their student accounts.

May 21st: Stuart School students with completed files for the summer will receive their funds disbursed to their student accounts.

Reminder to Spring Graduates

This is a friendly reminder that you must complete the Federal Loan Exit Counseling Online to finalize the Federal Loan Exit Counseling process for the Federal Stafford and Federal Plus Loan. Even if you have already attended the in person group workshop, you still must complete the Loan Exit Counseling Online.

Please log into the National Student Loan Database at www.nslds.ed.gov and select “Exit Counseling” to begin the process and use your FAFSA Personal Identification Number (PIN) to sign in. The website will take you through the process a section at a time with questions to answer after each section. Once the online session is complete, electronic confirmation will be sent to our office fulfilling your Federal Loan Exit Counseling requirement for the Stafford and Plus Loan. You can also view your aggregate loan totals and loan servicer contact information on to the National Student Loan Database System.

If you have not received your personal loan portfolio, please stop by the Office of Financial Aid to pick it up, you will need to show an ID. It lists all your loan records at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Downtown Campus. This is just an estimated amount and does not reflect any payments made toward your loans. To view more detailed information regarding your loans including lender and servicer names, outstanding balance, and interest accrued for your loans, please log on to the National Student Loan Database System at www.nslds.ed.gov and select "Financial Aid Review." If the total loan aggregates listed are inconsistent with your records please contact your loan servicer(s) to review your personal loan records.

If you have been awarded a Perkins loan or other Institutional loan, you will be contacted by our third party servicer ECSI to complete an exit interview. ECSI will contact you at your @kentlaw.edu email address to complete the exit interview. If you do not complete the exit interview within 30 days, the documents will be mailed. If you have changed addresses since you first accepted your loans, please update your contact information with ECSI to be sure that you receive all communications.

If you do not have access to the internet, please contact the Office of Financial Aid for alternative means of completing the Federal Stafford and Plus Loan Exit Counseling Requirement.

2012-2013 FAFSA Reminder

In order to qualify for financial aid for the 2012-2013 academic year, you must complete the 2012-2013 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

You can complete your FAFSA online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. In order to apply you will need your Personal Identification Number (PIN). Please remember to include our school code, E00773, when completing your FAFSA and keep in mind that the school name will be listed as Chicago-Kent College of Law.

If you will not be attending Illinois Institute of Technology Downtown Campus for the 2012-2013 academic year, or you are not interested in applying for federal financial aid, please disregard this reminder.

If you have any questions please call the Office of Financial Aid at (312) 906-5180, or send an email to finaid@kentlaw.edu.

Planning to Study Abroad or Visit Another school during the Summer 2012 term?

If you plan to participate in one of Chicago-Kent's Study Abroad Programs during the Summer 2012 semester and require financial aid, please email the Office of Financial Aid and let us know as soon as possible. The financial aid process for the study abroad program can take 4 to 6 weeks. Please list the study abroad program name when you send your email to finaid@kentlaw.edu.

Missing Required Documentation

To avoid delays, please submit any requested documentation as soon as possible.
Please follow the steps below to see if you still have missing requirements:

Log into the Illinois Institute of Technology's myIIT portal at the following link: https://my.iit.edu/.

Select the 'Finances' tab from the menu.

Required documents are listed in the Financial Aid Requirements channel.

Once you complete your Master Promissory Notes (not loan application) and Entrance Counseling via the Department of Education's website, it may take up to 2 weeks for your required document status on the myIIT portal to reflect this. If it has been over 2 weeks since your completion of a Promissory Note or Entrance Counseling and your documents status on myIIT is still showing not received, please contact our office.

If you were awarded the Perkins Loan this academic year 2011-2012, please check your Kent email (or your IIT e-mail address on the welcome screen of your myIIT portal, as communications could be sent there), for information from the IIT Perkins Loan servicer, ECSI, on completing the Promissory Note and Entrance Counseling. Students that competed this requirement last academic year 2010-2011 are not required to complete this requirement again. This maybe marked as spam in your mailbox, but it is not. You will not be able to complete the promissory note online if ECSI does not have your information on file that is why we ask that you wait until you receive an email notification. However, if mid-August has past and you have not completed this requirement, please contact ECSI directly at 1-888-549-3274 and state that you are attending the IIT Downtown Campus. Also, for more information see the Bursar's Office website at:

Reminder: Direct Deposit Available

Please be aware that the university allows students the option of having their financial aid refunds direct deposited into their checking or savings account. The university encourages all student to sign up for direct deposit. Click here for more information on the new TouchNet service.

Free Credit Report

Did you know that you are now able to
receive a free credit report once every 12 months?
We encourage students to review their credit reports
annually to check for inaccuracies and identify any
suspicious activity.

To receive your free credit report,
please visit the following link: http://www.annualcreditreport.com.
This central site allows you to request a free credit
file disclosure, commonly called a credit report,
once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer
credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and
TransUnion.

Please be aware that other sites may
advertise free credit reports, but this is the only
site that is sponsored by the federal government and
the three nationwide credit reporting agencies. Other
sites may charge fees.